One of the people addressing the human element and it’s effect on accidents and incident is Sidney Dekker, a professor at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. His views on a “just culture” in safety programs might just open your eyes. Watch below.

Before you pass up the above report, read this quote from it, “…Responsible companies and progressive regulators realize the need to go beyond regulatory compliance by embracing safety in a holistic manner.” This concept is important to the maritime industry as a whole. Regulations are in place to ensure a minimum safety standard. Yes, going beyond the regulations in terms of building, manning, equipping, maintaining and operating a vessel is costly. But aren’t incidents (groundings, collisions, fire, sinking, personal injury) expensive in and of themselves?

Any business will calculate the breakeven point of an investment. Perhaps the P&I Club costs are less than the costs of going beyond the minimum regulations, but what of the intangibles? BP (British Petroleum) and Exxon would probably tell you that preventing the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon or the grounding of the Exxon Valdez would have been far preferable than the alternative. The cost to a company’s reputation in the day of the 24-hour news cycle can be tremendous.

Human Dymensions specialise in the development of organisations and people through a better understanding of human decision making at work. Human Dymensions has developed a range of training programs, interactive tools and evidence-based interventions which enhance workplace relationships, culture, learning and management of risk. The programs and methods are unique to Human Dymensions and have been developed by Dr Long in collaboration with key experts in his team.